Ephemera :: Alexandra Mackenzie

“Is this ephemera?” Alex Mackenzie, who is Petra Glynt, keeps asking me. Alex has a nervous energy that comes across charming, she fiddles with her fingernails and looks into the middle distance, away from you, when she speaks. When she does make eye contact she opens her eyes wide, her eyes constantly asking, “Right? You know what I mean?” with a demure, reserved sort of affection. She giggles a lot. She gets you on her wavelength this way. I reassure her constantly that whatever she wants to show me can be ephemera, as long as it’s important to her. Everything seems important to her. She covers every object she owns with her personality. She chooses her few words in quick bursts. She expresses herself most strongly in her visual art and her music. And her music is expressive. Sharp, multi-layered, foreboding, warm, with a darkness that doesn’t overpower her very bright light.

Petra Glynt released her lush 5-song EP Of This Land in 2013. Currently she is recording a full length which she aims to release late 2015. The photos contained herein were taken both at her Toronto apartment on Bloor St and at her partner Brian’s apartment in Parkdale.

I got this to listen to the radio. I listen to Coast to Coast a lot. It’s a conspiracy radio show. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s super out there. It’s really entertaining.

I cover a lot of things in rhinestones. Mostly I don’t like to look at the brands. I use this sampler for live shows a lot.

One day I decided I really wanted a yo-yo. My friend, she’s a bike courier, she was delivering stuff and she went out of her way and delivered this to me. I can’t do any tricks on it, it’s the kind you just use. I want to get one of those fancy weighted ones.

This one has lots of stories. It was one of my first pedals I ever got and it opened up my whole world. I was like shit, I can jam with myself. So I started doing that a lot, it’s a lot of fun.

I used these patterns for an event at the Gladstone recently. I was DJing reggae songs in this huge tent and this pattern was surrounding it. I used three screens to make this print, which I’ve used a couple times now.

I bought this off eBay. It’s really funny, it has speakers and effects. It has a doom metal setting! It’s very tacky, like serious kitch. I used to record to it all the time. Not as much anymore though.

I wear this a lot. My friend made it. He works at Toronto Laser Services and he made it at work with lasers. I attached it to a bunch of metal chains.

It’s not nice but it’s my friend Blake’s Dad’s shirt so it’s important. Blake is my buddy. We lived together, he made the video for “Sour Paradise”. I don’t see him much now. I miss him.

This is a journal. I write dreams and songs in it. I have a bunch of these. I like them because they are short and small so I can fill them quick and move on to the next one. I like to start a new book, it’s exciting that way.

This is a box I gave to Brian. There’s a spider ring, my old student ID, an old business card and a picture of me. That’s ephemera, right?